Large area electronic energy control, display or lighting products that are permanently mounted in structures, such as buildings, ships, aircraft, trains, buses, or cars, may include electronic or electro-optical devices (collectively “electronic energy control devices”), such as electrochromic, OLED, electroluminescent, electro-reflective, LCD, and other monolithic display or lighting devices, in which an electronically and optically active media is contained between closely spaced electrodes. The appearance of the lighting or a display created by such electronic energy control devices may be adversely affected by the presence of defects in the active media that locally modify the potential between the electrodes.
For example, electrochromic devices include electrochromic materials that are known to change their optical properties, in response to application of an electrical potential, so as to make the device, for example, more or less transparent or reflective, or have a desired coloration.
The manufacture of an electrochromic device typically includes forming an electrochromic (EC) film stack including a plurality of layers of conductive and electrochromic material on a substrate, such as glass. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,321,544, 6,856,444, 7,372,610 and 7,593,154, incorporated by reference herein. During the manufacturing process, defects sometimes may be formed in one or more of the layers of the EC film that can cause the electrochromic device to have a different optical behavior than desired, or lack a desired optical behavior, at or near the location of the defect when the device is operated by applying an electrical potential thereto. The defect may be a short between conductive layers of the EC film stack caused, for example, by foreign contaminants, or a material non-uniformity or scratch in one or more of layers of the EC film stack, that causes the EC device, when operated, to have at the location of the defect optical properties different than those desired and present at locations adjacent to the defect. The defect, hence, may cause the EC device to have an undesirable aesthetic appearance when operated.
Although various techniques are known and may be performed to repair a defect in an electronic energy control device, such as an electrochromic device, during manufacture, some defects still may remain in a final, manufactured electronic energy control device product. For example, an electrochromic device included in a final, manufactured electrochromic device product, such as an insulated glass unit (IGU), may include defects visible only when the electrochromic device transitions between an energized and non-energized state, and defects not visible in visible or near infrared light. Oftentimes, such defects are noticed or appear only after installation of the electrochromic device product, for example, as an exterior window in a high rise building.
Systems for repair of defects in an electronic energy control device used during manufacture of an electronic energy control device product typically are very large in size and heavy, thereby making it difficult, if not impossible, for a single person to transport and handle the system. For example, a defect repair system used at a facility for manufacture of an electrochromic energy control device product (“factory repair system”) usually includes a support framework that supports and encloses an electrochromic device product, such as a window, to be repaired, a camera and camera positioning device, and a laser and a laser positioning device. The camera and laser positioning devices are of a size large enough to permit the camera and laser to be positioned at any point over the surface of the window, which may be as large as 1850 mm×3200 mm or sometimes larger in size. The camera and laser positioning devices, thus, usually have significant weight on the order of hundreds of pounds. In addition, the support framework is usually of a large size, which is larger than the size of a glass product to be repaired, and has a weight of several thousand pounds.
Therefore, after installation of an electronic energy control device product, repair of a defect at the location of the installation usually cannot be performed. Instead, the usual courses of action are replacement of the product, or removal of the product for repair at a manufacturing facility. For example, the repair of an window with an electrochromic device that is installed, for example, in an office building, using a factory repair system typically involves removing the window and transporting it to the manufacturing facility, temporarily covering the hole in the building resulting from removal of the window, such as with plywood or another window, to keep out weather, repairing the window at the facility with the factory repair system, transporting the repaired window from the facility to the building, removing the temporary cover and re-installing the repaired window. This repair process is time consuming, and the expense associated with removing the window and replacing the repaired window, which sometimes may require a person to work from the outside of the building, many stories above the ground, is usually substantial.
Therefore, there exists a need for an apparatus for repair of a defect in an electronic energy control device having a compact construction and a weight and size providing for ease of transport, handling and operation of the apparatus by a single person.